Document management solutions were created for a very simple reason. Businesses realized that having to maintain hundreds of thousands of paper files and important documents was risky. If all documents are stored in a file cabinet or around the office and a natural disaster occurs, such as a flood or fire, you could lose everything. It could take years to get you back to the place you were before the disaster.
In addition, day-to-day activities when using paper are costly. Once documents are filed away, companies often struggle to find where things are stored. On average, companies lose one out of every 20 documents and spend $120 in labor to find that missing document, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, an audit and assurance consulting company. In response to this, companies started to take advantage of computers and cloud, using document management solutions to take an image of those important documents and store them in an easily accessible place. Not only could employees easily search for documents by typing in keywords, but they were also able to access them from anywhere.
Thanks to the success of general document management, Receivables Document Management was introduced as a way to improve the collections process. Instead of simply capturing images of documents to store away, receivables document management is being used as a way to send documents to customers and speed up the collections process. Instead of printing out paper documents and mailing them, customers are able to have access via email and customer portals.
The benefits of using receivables document management are vast. They don’t simply end by allowing access to documents in the cloud. Companies are also finding that invoice disputes are being resolved faster because documents are more readily available, reports are more easily created and contain more vital information and companies are able to comply with audits since all documents are stored in one, easily searchable place.
Receivables document management has changed the way the collection process is handled. Invoices are being paid faster, better relationships with customers are being formed and collections representatives are enjoying less manual tasks. In the following blog posts on receivables document management, we will discuss more benefits and how to build a business case for receivables document management.
